The species is found in Peninsular Malaysia (Ratnam et al., 1995; Azlan, 2003; Kawanishi and Sunquist, 2004; Laidlaw pers. comm.), southern Myanmar (Than Zaw et al, in press), Borneo (Wells et al., 2005) and Sumatra (Holden, 2006), southern Thailand, peninsular Malayasia, Sumatra, Java, and Borneo, as well as on Bangka and Belitung Islands (Van Rompaey 1993). On Java, it has been suggested to be probably restricted to the mountains in the west (e.g. Mt. Halimun, see Suyanto, 2003), but there are two historical specimens from the Ijang plateau in East Java (held in Museum für Naturkunde, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin), and, given very low levels in recent decades of small carnivore survey in Java (see, e.g., Riffel 1991), the species could still occur on other mountains in Java. On Borneo and Sumatra, it is probably widespread, although it is unclear whether the species occurs in Central Kalimantan swamps (not reported from Sebangau or Tanjung Puting). It was found up to 1100 m on Java by Bartels (1941) . This species was recorded up to 1800 m in Mount Kinabulu National Park in Borneo Payne et al. (1998). It was recorded by Azlan (2003) in Jerangau Forest Reserve (04 55.5 N, 103 05.7 E) in Peninsular Malaysia in 2000-01. In Sumatra, it has been found up to 2,400 m (Holden 2006) in Kerinci Seblat NP.

The most northerly record is at 15° 20'N (Steinmetz and Simcharoen 2006). The record at 17° 54'N (Humphrey and Bain 1990) in northern-central Thailand is probably erroneous (Steinmetz and Simcharoen 2006). On the basis of portrayal in picture-guides alone, this species can be readily confused with spotted linsang.